Photographer Anand Varma first became interested in bees when National Geographic asked him to do a photo shoot for a story. From that point on Anand started keeping bees in his backyard.

Long story short, Anand was awakened to the reality of Varroa destructor, the bee-decimating parasitic mite. He became determined to help solve this problem which has become one of the main reasons for the disappearance of bees, other than pesticide use.

“We took this wild creature and put it inside of a box, practically domesticating it, and originally that was so that we could harvest their honey. But eventually we started losing our wild pollinators and there are many places now where those wild pollinators can no longer meet the pollination demands of our agriculture,” Anand says. “So these managed bees have become an integral part of our food system. So when people talk about saving bees, my interpretation of that is we need to save our relationship with bees.”

“And in order to design new solutions, we have to understand the basic biology of bees. And understand the effects of stressors that we sometimes can not see,” he adds. “In other words, we have to understand bees up close.”

So Anand teamed up with the bee department at UC Davis to get a close look at a bees’ first 21 days, mites included. The result is a stunning glimpse into something the world has never seen before. See for yourself:

If you would like to learn more about Anand’s work watch him on Ted Talks below: